Loving Kindness Meditation (Metta Meditation)
Francesca WehrJanuary 14 2023 • Duration: 12 Minutes
Loving kindness meditation is a practice that cultivates and nurtures feelings of unconditional kindness and love towards oneself and others using silent mantras or phrases. Like mindfulness, the technique has its origins in the Buddhist tradition, where it’s known as Metta Meditation, meaning benevolence, loving-kindness, friendliness, and goodwill.
Numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of regularly practicing loving kindness meditations.
These benefits include:
1. Increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions
2. Increases vagal tone which increases positive emotions and feelings of social connection
3. Decreases Migraines
4. Decreases Chronic Pain
5. Decreases PTSD
6. Decreases schizophrenia-spectrum disorders
7. Activates empathy and emotional processing in the brain
8. Increases gray matter volume
9. Increases respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA)
10. Slows biological aging
11. Makes you a more helpful person
12. Increases compassion
13. Increases empathy
14. Decreases your bias towards others
15. Increases social connection
16. Curbs self-criticism
(Learn more about these research findings at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-it/201409/18-science-backed-reasons-try-loving-kindness-meditation)